Africa’s already thin COVID vaccine supply to drop by 25 per cent: WHO

NAIROBI, Kenya, Sept 11, (AP): Africa’s already thin supply of COVID-19 vaccines has taken another significant hit, with the World Health Organization’s Africa director saying Thursday that for various reasons, including the rollout of booster shots, “we will get 25% less doses than we were anticipating by the end of the year.”

Matshidiso Moeti’s comments to reporters came as the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said just over 3% of people across the African continent have been fully vaccinated. That coverage drops to around 1.7% in subSaharan Africa, according to the WHO.

African health officials are dismayed by Wednesday’s announcement that the global COVAX effort to distribute vaccines to low-and middle-income countries is again cutting its delivery forecast. That revision, Moeti told reporters, is “in part because of the prioritization of bilateral deals over international solidarity.”

The COVAX challenges, along with export controls on vaccine doses and the introduction of booster shots by some countries, “really means at the end there has to be a calculation, a projection that we will get 25% less doses than we were anticipating before the end of the year,” she said.

Moeti noted that while COVAX has delivered over 5 million vaccine doses to African countries in the past week, “three times as many doses have been thrown away in the United States alone” since March.

“Every dose is precious,” Moeti said, adding that high-income countries have pledged to share 1 billion doses globally but so far only 120 million have been released. “If companies and countries prioritize vaccine equity, this pandemic would be over quickly.” The WHO says the target of vaccinating 10% of people in Africa by the end of this month is being missed. The goal is to vaccinate 40% by the end of the year.